governor blanco's handpicked speaker of the house joe salter authors and introduces house bill 649.
house bill 649 seeks to "cow" those of us who would challenge our property tax assessments by punishing those who would file suit against their parish assessors by casting the loser with among other things court costs and legal fees.
our louisiana state representatives who think this is a good idea:
meanwhile salter clone la representative jack d smith (d) franklin, authors and introduces house bill 1366 in which "...costs and fines are deemed to be civil money judgements in the same manner as provided for orders for restitution..."
La. State Representative Jack D. Smith (D) Franklin
so lets say your dog gets loose and impregnates your neighbors slutty bitch and you get taken to court. your neighbor wins lets say a $1,000 (788 EUR) judgement. now a thousand dollars is a thousand dollars but most people can come up with that amount. lets suppose the plaintiff's court costs and attorney fee's run $10,000 (louisiana lawyers wouldnt dare pad their fees now would they? no of course not) so the result of this legislation is that they can come after you and take your car your house, bank account etc to satisfy the total judgement which includes the attorney fees and court costs.
oh and lets not forget la state representative rick farrar (d) pineville house bill 18 (we blogged about here) which extends the length of time for filing a lawsuit from one year to two years.
